Category Archives: Photos

Farmlands were flooded with muddy water on Wednesday, Aug. 31, a day after Typhoon Lionrock landed in Japan,bringing recordamount of rainfall in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region. Agricultural cooperatives in the area are rushing to grasp the damage situation, as rivers flooded and swept away the crops which were nearly ready for harvest. In Iwate Prefecture, at least 12 people were reported dead. With four typhoons hitting the nation in August, farmers are completely at a loss as to how to recover the losses. ■Nearly harvestable sugar beets and potatoes uprooted by storm – Hokkaido                               … Continue reading →

A dome house made of polyurethane foam is drawing attention for its superior durability and thermal insulating properties. They are already put to use as guesthouses and, recently, as agricultural facilities. In April this year, the dome-shaped guesthouses near the epicenter of the Kumamoto Earthquake were confirmed undamaged and became the proof of their high natural disaster resistance. The dome house was developed by Japan Dome House Co., Ltd., a company based in Kaga-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture. The company has begun supplying the dome houses for agricultural use in 2015 as well. Katsuyuki Kitagawa, president of the firm, used to own a traditional Japanese confectionery maker. In 1998, he began developing … Continue reading →

Farmers and towners of Mitane-cho, Akita Prefecture, hold the world championship of junsai picking every summer. The town is Japan’s largest producer of junsai, a delicate, slimy vegetable known as water shield in English, and the championship is held to make junsai more popular and give a boost to the junsai production. Junsai is a wild aquatic plant that grows in water of one to three meters deep. People eat its sprout which grows in water and is covered with a transparent, viscous jelly. Its growing area totals 69 hectares nationwide and 33 hectares or almost 50% of it is in Mitane-cho. This year’s 3rd annual championship was held on … Continue reading →

The Japanese tea industry and tea producers are trying to boost the consumption of green tea this summer by making cold brew iced green tea a “hot” and favorite drink for boiling hot days. Cold brew green tea has higher level of epigallocatechin content compared to hot brewed one. (Epigallocatechin has a function to boost the immune system of the human body.) The introduction of stylish wine-bottle-shaped containers for cold brewing was also a key to draw attentions of consumers. Some taxies served iced green tea to their customers for free. Iced green tea is very likely to be a hot item in Japan this summer. Functionality is a key … Continue reading →